Apple's bionic ARM to muscle advanced gaming graphics into iPhones

The next generation of iPhone appears set to claim exclusive access to advanced graphics core and video decoding technology, thanks to a secret licensing deal between Apple, mobile graphics leader Imagination Technologies, and Samsung, the iPhone's ARM "system on a chip" manufacturer. The result may be an ideal platform for handheld gaming and high definition video playback.

Imagination's New 3D SGX Core

The current iPhone model and most other mobile devices use a version of the PowerVR MBX graphics processor core developed by Imagination. Mobile processor manufacturers such as Intel, Marvell, Samsung, and Texas Instruments have licensed this core and include it on their SoC or "system on a chip" designs, which pack multiple processing cores, memory, and interface components into a single, tightly integrated package.

The PowerVR MBX graphics core used in Apple's iPhone, the Nokia N95, and other popular phones supports the features of OpenGL ES 1.1. Many mobile chip manufactures have a design license to modify and develop their own SoC parts, which include Imagination's MBX graphics core.

Imagination's next generation graphics core, the PowerVR SGX, introduces OpenGL ES 2.0 support, along with a Universal Scalable Shader Engine that provides mobile devices with highly efficient, shader-based 3D graphics. SGX is not only backwards compatible with code developed for MBX, but also actually runs it with better performance and efficiency.

HD Video with the PowerVR VXD Core

Imagination has also developed VXD decoder codec components capable of playing back high definition video from a mobile device either directly or output to an external display.

The VXD core specializes in highly power efficient decoding, making it possible to handle HD video content with comparable power consumption to existing audio playback chips.

Imagination licenses both its VXD codec cores and the new SGX graphics processor core designs to chip manufacturers, but access to the latest generation of its intellectual property has been negotiated in a new way.

The release noted that the license "enables Samsung to manufacture semiconductor devices which integrate these IP cores from Imagination." According to a source familiar with the agreement, this deal is unique in that it is only a manfacturing licence, and is the first time Imagination has issued one on such terms.

The source reports that Samsung does not have a license to design chips that include the cores, only to produce them. This is different from previous licensing agreements related to the MBX graphics core, for which Samsung does have a design license.

The Mysterious Licensee

Last July, Imagination announced a deal to license its "next generation graphics and video IP cores to an international electronics systems company under a multi-use licensing agreement." The electronics system company was not named.

The release stated that "the SoCs to be developed under this license agreement will be produced for this new partner by Imaginations existing semiconductor partners and/or new chip manufacturing partners."

The fact that this "electronics system company" was both a "new partner" and not itself a chip manufacturer strongly suggests that the international electronics mystery company was in fact, Apple, Inc., which stands among very few other companies as new to mobile graphics core licensing yet dependent upon third party manufacturers who are already Imagination partners.

Combined with knowledge that Samsung is now licensing the next generation SGX and VXD designs for manufacturing, this indicates that Apple has secured unique Imagination technology for its own exclusive use, and is using Samsung to manufacture the new SoC parts for future models.